We arrived first thing in the morning everything was quiet and still. We had to wait for another yacht to clear with customs before we could go onto the fisherman’s wharf. The entry procedure was easy and relaxed. The paper work, the rubbish had been taken away, we had treated the officials to some ginger crunch we were ready for a nap.

We anchored further up the bay because there were no moorings. Hew, and I had a rest while the girls got changed and took off to socialise. They also needed to sort out what was happening with the sailing week and register us. They came back with all the info after having had a few drinks at the bar.

Meanwhile James went for a run as an escape from being caged up on the boat with the girls for a week. He is also training for a marathon in November. Being at sea is not great for this!

There were many dinners and cocktail events and also talks but we wanted to do a few other activities as well because both girls had to go at the end of the week. Then we found out that there were no flights for five days at the end of the week due to the aircraft going into maintenance on the Friday and not back until the following Wednesday. Therefore James also had to leave earlier than planned.

The first night in we all went to dinner at Mangos the local yachty bar owned by a local who is a Cathay Pacific pilot.

Caves

The next day we were off to have a look around at a couple of the anchorage’s and the caves. The first cave was Mariners where you had to dive down to get into it . Hew, James and I explored that one while Deb and Pauline looked after the yacht. There is no where to anchor near these caves so the yacht just had to hover around.

The next one was the Swallows cave and Hew looked after the yacht while the rest of us snorkelled into it. This cave was very disappointing compared to the last time I had been here. Graffiti all over the walls and not birds or bats or fish. Though there were plenty of fish outside and slightly further along the coast.

The third cave was just a little up the coast and a smaller but much prettier cave

A video of the caves: https://youtu.be/SWc5F9B9-8I?si=NH4ZD20lHPlcxAmh

Port Maurelle

We anchored for the night at a lovely bay called Port Maurelle and the paddle board came out. Barb went for a paddle, then Debbie and https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBSuo90vPm1/?igsh=MWVyZnY1NnFxZnVmNA== and the next day James took it for a long paddle all the way down the coast.

Sailing Week and socialising

Debbie and Pauline made the most of the bars and restaurants – checking them all out for us. They started with Bears floating Bar – The Hideaway – serving margaritas, beers and fish and chips.

The Wednesday Race

The main event of the week is a social race on the Wednesday. We of course had to enter and invited 4 additional crew, Peter off S/V Yellow, Sunny and Canute from “La Kahina” and Kara from Whangārei Marina. We had a lot of fun but it was not uneventful.

After the briefing At Mango cafe, the race started when the traditional local Tongan yacht passed in front of the bar, and off we went in the dingys to the yachts.

We were third around the first mark in the channel, raised the spinnaker and it all looked good.

Soon the yacht in front of us broached in a gust and we decided to lower our spinnaker before we hit the same patch of water.

All was going well. We were starting to catch the boats in front with the code zero out then we hit a calm patch. The Code 0 back winded on the spreaders and ripped a hole.

Down came the code zero and out went the genoa.

Our mates in Soul were hot on our heels as was another large monohull Hassebas. Some of the crew were down stairs mending the code zero with sticky back tape. We headed for the bottom mark and island. Repairs completed and with slick crew work the sail was re-hoisted before we reached the mark

We were holding our own on the inside for a port rounding of the island, metres from the lay line the starboard sheet was winched on a touch with the electric winch and suddenly bang – the sheet broke. We immediately tacked over to the on to port and there still seemed to be just enough room to clear the island when the port sheet also broke – our electric winches are very powerful! With the genoa flapping in the breeze we started the engines to ensure we cleared the reef off the island while our two competitors pass us wondering what we were up to.

Deploying the now repaired code zero we were back chasing the others but struggling for height. James climbed up the forestay to attach new sheets to the genoa and we were back racing. It’s good to have the young and fit onboard. However by now the other boats were well ahead and we sailed on our own to the finish which required a crew member to go ashore at Mangos and register.

As we approached Mangos restaurant instead of launching the dinghy James did a lovely swan dive off the bow and swam in for us to register a finish.

In the end we were 4th over the line and the 3rd catamaran and somehow managed to pick up a voucher for 2 loads of washing at Bubbles laundromat – perfect for washing bedding etc for departing crew.

There are lots more photographs of all the activities on the Vava’u Sailing week facebook site. https://www.facebook.com/VavauSailingFestival

Quiz night at Kraaken

The Quiz night was run by Whangārei and Opua Marinas , and was a lot of fun. We won a voucher from the Kraken Restaurant which Hew and I duly enjoyed later in the week. By the end of the night Pauline and Deb were so happy they were beside themselves!!

Swimming with the whales

Although there were many activities on the race week we decided that we had to go whale watching while we were in Vava’u. We went out with David Lino from Beluga Dive who also run the moorings near their base. The experience was brilliant here are some stills from our adventure with a mother and calf.

We were in the water 4 at a time with a guide and just cruised on the surface allowing the whales to come to us. The calf would surface for air every 5-7 minutes and the mother would come up every 15-20 minutes. They became used to us and the calf became inquisitive and the mother relaxed and was happy for us to be nearby – a fabulous experience.

Back to Civilisation for the two Trollops

On Thursday all three of the crew had to leave to get back to NZ for the following week. Debbie and Pauline took off early to spend a day in Nukualofa, James waited for the late flight relaxing and enjoying the peace on the yacht.

It was a great three weeks and we really enjoyed the hectic schedule, but when they were gone we could finally relax.The first time on the boat without guests and crew since Martinique in April.

Our Passage

We anchored outside Shelter Bay the night before as our uplift time for the pilot was 0400. The Panama Canal control centre gave all the boats an update at 2100 the day before and our uplift was changed to 0430.

0330 we were up and awake, still anchored but we could see the activity of two boats, one a yacht and one a large launch both close to us and both motoring. The canal advisor arrived on time at 0430 and told us to up anchor immediately and head towards the tanker that we could see already in the channel and motoring towards the locks. We asked about following the yacht in front which had picked up his pilot first but he said no just pass him and go ahead.

As we were motoring at 8kts towards the tanker, and passing the other yacht we discovered that the motor boat had decided not to come because he wanted to be in the lock by himself and not rafted to other yachts which would cost him another whole fee. We also discovered that we would be the lead boat of the two yachts as we were bigger. I had asked the advisor if it was because he was older/ more experienced but he said no it was the advisor on the biggest boat that was the leader. Our advisor Edwin was great, calm, knowledgeable, chatty, and a really nice guy.

Approaching the Locks at 0430

Locks Going Up

Below is a collection of photos to give you an idea of the Gatun Lake environment and traffic. A Park surrounds the Lake and you can only go on the lake by boat for the day if you want to look around. When you are crossing the canal there is no time to stop. We were hoping for an overnight trip to just take it all in but no such luck. There is constant work going on at the Pacific end of the lake and the big cut through which is impressive. But there is a lot of old building materials, drilling parts, and general construction rubbish just dumped on the sides of the southern end of the lake.

Line handlers on the yachts must pay attention to keep the yachts in the centre of the lock the lines must be constantly taken in or eased depending on the way you are going. As we were rafted with another boat we only had to manage the lines on the Starboard side. Geordie and Craig assisted by Graeme managed this easily while Barb drove us through under instruction from Edwin our advisor. Hew was in charge of catering, we had been informed it was very important to feed our advisor. He did appreciate a large macaroni cheese for lunch along with afgans and slices of banana cake along the way.

The boat tied alongside was a bit of a problem from struggling to come alongside, even when we were stationary, to wanting to drive and unhelpfully turning their wheel against the direction Barb and our advisor were trying to go! We were very glad to cast off from them when we cleared the final loch into the Pacific.

Going up in the locks to Lake Gatun the small boats follow the big boats, at the other end going down the small boats go first. The gates of the locks can be taken off for maintenance and they float.

Gatun Lake

Some of the locks recycle water but not all so you need to wait for the ship going down when you are going up as the water passes from one side to the other.

Going Down to the Pacific

Canal cameras monitor all the locks and you can bring the pictures up on the internet. -Eleuthera far left at the front of the lock, yacht beside us, and tug behind. The tanker was still coming into the lock.

In the Pacific

More than 12 hours after we had started we dropped the Canal Advisor off and Anchored at Isla Flamenco for the night.

The trip through the canal is awe-inspiring and an amazing experience that takes some time to assimilate. The work in the construction and continued running and maintenance of the whole area and the great bridges are truly awe-inspiring.

This blog has had photos contributed by all the crew. We hope you enjoy the read.

Next Blog: https://kiwiflyingfish.com/2024/05/panama-to-galapagos-passage/

We had a fabulous sail from Tobago to Martinique with just over 20 hours and 200 miles from lifting our anchor in Charlotteville to dropping it in Le Marin. Perfect sailing conditions on a tight reach which Eleuthera loves with a reef in the main to control speeds so we didn’t fall off too many waves. Arriving in the channel between St Lucia and Martinique at sunrise we were treated to 10 or 15 Brown Boobies following us and feeding on the flying fish we startled into flight.

Le Marin

By 9 am we were anchored and had a nap before venturing ashore after lunch to check in at the Marina Office. All that is required is to fill in the forms on the computer, pay 5 Euro and that was it- checked in, So simple.

Le Marin has 5 dingy docks, a very large fuel dock, dry stands, floating maintenance docks, many shops, several chandleries though these are small, and numerous bars and restaurants. It is a very buzzy marine destination with several yacht charter companies. Of course, the downside is there are hundreds of yachts, the marinas are very full, and the hundreds of buoys are also mostly full both at Le Marin and at Sainte-Anne which is just at the harbour entrance. The good things are there are very good supermarkets and boulangeries.

We were fascinated by the local boats out training – you must be very fit to hike in and out on the boards. Here is a short video as we watched one training. https://youtu.be/QvQoOqnI8pg Here is more about the Martinique Yole .

Raymarine Screen Failures and Delays

We anchored close in the first night as we knew we had to check in and also take in the second Raymarine screen which had failed in Tobago. We could not make the Raymarine online system work as it kept telling us to send the screen to Sydney when we were in the Caribbean and it needed to go to Boston. No amount of emails or help desk chats seemed to be able to sort this. After several days it became apparent the solution was to take it to the local Raymarine dealer to send away. We did this on Thursday and returned on Monday to check on the progress to find it still on the floor having been forgotten. After some prompting, we had a DHL tracking number the following day and it was off to Boston.

Meanwhile, we were trying to get an update on the other screen we had sent for repair via the dealer in Trinidad which was proving difficult as Raymarine would not talk to us without authorization from the dealer.

While this was going on we discovered the Transducer for recording speed, depth, and temperature was on the blink and we needed a new one. These were unavailable in Le Marin and expensive to import so to reduce the local taxes and fees we ordered one for delivery to St Lucia. Here we could import it tax and duty-free as a “yacht in transit”, not something the French were interested in.

Le Marin

Sainte-Anne

The following day we shifted out to the entrance at Saoimte-Anne for better swimming and less crowded – if 250 yachts means less crowded!

The town of Sainte-Anne dates from 1868 and was named after a man who defended the island against the English in 1808. The famous Église Sainte-Anne was burned by the British in 1730 and then destroyed again by a cyclone in 1817. It took 12 years to build another church and today it is one of the oldest on the island. As you walk up the hill, from the town towards the beach, you pass the well-kept Le cimietière Marin which overlooks the bay. All the tombs are constructed with white tiles which makes it truly beautiful. https://azmartinique.com/en/life-in-martinique/municipalities/sainte-anne.

With the old sections, there is also the new and the artwork and posters are interesting. I was very amused to see the poster of the female Air Force pilot. An Air Force poster is not an item you expect to see in the islands, let alone a female one.

A lovely lunch – Basilic Beach

After we walked over the hill from the town to the beach we stopped and had lunch at Basilic. It was a lovely low-key restaurant with a great view and excellent food. https://www.facebook.com/lebasilicbeach

A Music Bar for Dinner – La Dunette

Another night we decided to go out for dinner and try and catch some music. Well, we got a DJ but he was very good and the bar had a beautiful view but the food was like English Pub food – eminently missable. The night was very entertaining with the locals coming and going along with tourists like us. https://www.ladunette.com/restaurant/restaurant.html

Diving

We knew that we would be in Martinique for a while, so we decided to go diving. We selected Natiyabel as they were the closest. The first day of diving was with more cruisers also on their way toward Panama. The first dive was a bit average but the second one was very good. We decided to do another day’s diving but Hew’s knee had swollen up badly. We called Mark in Australia for a medical opinion. So I went diving and Hew had a day off. Hews’ knee turned out to be Bursitis from overuse perhaps kneeling in the bilges. The first dive was at Saint Luce reef and was great with a big swim through and some nice cliff formations, but the following dive was shallow and not very interesting. It was more of a snorkel site.

Natiyabel Plongee

https://natiyabel.com/

Two days Touring

We had been diving and the battery in my watch was running low and needed replacing. The company that had the agency to fix and test Suunto watches was out near the airport a 30-minute drive from Le Marin, so we decided to hire a car for two days and use it to drop the watch off and do some island exploring. So off we went and did all the southern part of the island one day and the northern part the next.

The roads are generally very good with some 2 lane motorways as you head towards Port au France—evidence of substantial financial support from France and the EU everywhere. The guys in the dive shop were very friendly and assured us the watch would be ready the following day.

We decided to head across the island to Francois and explore the bottom of the island. The southern part is lower lying and we visited various bays on the East coast along with inland areas of farming and agriculture. Lunch in a local restaurant is always a good thing with some delicious local fish and good coffee. After some further exploring and a visit to a local supermarket (Carrefour), we returned to Eleuthera at dusk.

With an earlier start the next morning we returned to the dive shop via a different route and then on to the more mountainous northern part of the island. Narrow winding roads up and down steep terrain were the order of the day. These roads would open out into valleys and areas of flatter arable land with large areas of sugar cane and many banana plantations. Almost all the hands of bananas were encased in plastic bags to protect them and help them ripen. Something we must try at home with our bananas. There is a lot of mechanised farming with large tractors and harvesters operating, we even passed a tractor and farm machinery dealership.

Lunch proved difficult as the fare in the local patisseries was uninviting and we struggled to find a cafe or restaurant. Hungry we found a large supermarket and emerged with a baguette and the makings of a picnic to consume on the beach nearby. After negotiating the one-way system in the village we made it to the beach only to discover there were several restaurants right there! We had a very nice picnic with an old upturned fishing boat as a table followed by a walk across a sandy spit to a very picturesque little island. Barb of course had to go swimming while Hew looked on.

From there it was up into the highlands and the spectacular rainforest. The island is largely volcanic with steep hillsides windy roads, narrow bridges, and lush vegetation from the high rainfall. Much of the inland area is a protected park with various walking tracks and areas to explore. Unfortunately, we were constrained by time and could only stop occasionally.

However, we did drive up Mt Pele as far as the first Refuge at about 800m and stopped to look at the view. It was a bit cooler up here and Barb had to put on some more clothes, rather than just her bikini. The mountain is nearly 1400m and last erupted in 1902 when it wiped out the town of St Pierre on the west coast below it. On our visit, the peak was largely shrouded in cloud with several walkers heading up the trail to the caldera a 7km round trip with at least 2 other shelters further up the mountain. It felt like it would be a pretty wild place in a big storm.

We visited the small town of St Pierre last year. St Pierre was settled by Europeans who wiped the last of the local Caribs in 1658. Legend has it that the last ones uttered horrible curses invoking the mountain to take its revenge before they died. By 1900 St Pierre was known as the Paris of the Caribbean with a population of 30,000 and the capital of Martinique. Despite early volcanic activity and minor eruptions throughout April, the politicians of the day chose not to evacuate the town as elections were due and on 8 May 1902 the mountain took its revenge and erupted. All but 2 people were killed and 12 ships in the bay were destroyed by a fireball of superheated gas, famously one of the survivors was a murderer who was locked up in a stone cell.

Continuing via a hilltop town with a huge church, and on towards Port au France for rush hour on Friday. Bumper-to-bumper traffic and only a large-scale map meant a few wrong turns. We got to explore parts of the town you might not normally find yourself in, got tooted at a few times but eventually found the road south to Le Marin. Interestingly Port au France has an alternative to light rail with divided bus lanes down the middle of the road and long buses with several carriages – dont know what it cost but seemed to work well!

Recruiting Crew

Given our next major leg to Panama is fast coming up we decided some additional crew to help would be a good idea. It is about 1200 miles from here to Panama, 6 or 7 days nonstop some additional watch keepers would make the journey easier. Facebook soon produced some likely candidates with a young French couple just arrived across the Atlantic and wanting to make it to Central America and a young English guy wanting to go to Colombia.

Store Bay

Store Bay was a reasonable anchorage. No dingy dock and you had to pull the boat up the beach. The airport was very close and very busy, much more so than expected.

From Store Bay you need to take a taxi to Scarborough to clear in, even though it is the same country. bureaucracy rules. The cab dropped us at the main immigration office not the one we needed in the port, so we walked down through the town to the port. A cruise ship was in so people were everywhere. A very uninspiring town and we saw many cruise ship people wondering what they were doing there.

Asking our way to immigration we were shown down an alleyway past the toilet block of the port terminal building and up some stairs – follow the yellow foot prints. We were wondering where we were going. When we got to Immigration the first thing they wanted to know was when we wanted to leave and then informed us that we could not go to any other bays without informing them. Next, they told us the island was divided in half. Hence, if we were going up to the northern end, we also had to check out of Scarborough and check into Charlotteville without stopping as it was a different area under completely different authorities. Then we asked how we could visit the beaches and bays on the way without stopping. He agreed that we could but was very vague on the issue. We said we wanted to check out now as we did not want to cab back into town again the next day just to check out. This was getting ridiculous so we just said we would leave the next day to enable us to get the forms to take to Charlottesville.

Next he told us we did not need to visit customs as it was the same country -Trinidad and Tobago. We had a wander around the town and then tried to get a taxi back to Store Bay. The price was 10TT each on the way to Scarborough but the taxis on the rank wanted 40TT each to go back because the cruise ship was in. We walked up to the main road and got a car for 10TT each

We spent the next day in Store Bay relaxing and snorkelling. We made the decision to leave the next for Buccoos. The forecast was for an increasing northerly swell due to a weather system to the north. Buccoos Bay was behind the reef so we decided it was worth a go.

Buccoos Bay

Arrival and Unexpected Visitors

We wandered slowly and carefully through the narrow shallow channel in the reef and anchored off the port. We were just sorting out some bits and pieces inside when we noticed we had a visitor sitting right in front of the window. The Pelican stayed for an hour totally unperturbed by our movement around the chart bench or dining table.

Not long after I went for a swim to check the anchor and could hear someone yelling. The next minute, I see two Chinese gentlemen swimming towards us. They had come off the beach and then got a bit tired and cramped and asked if they could rest onboard. We gave them some water and had a small discussion using Google Translate as they spoke no English.

It turns out they were from Wuhan and were working on some runway maintenance at the airport. Wuhan is a long way from the sea (look it up). I think they had no idea after swimming several hundred metres off the beach what sort of trouble they would have been in if we hadn’t rescued them. Swimming and floating downwind we were the last boat before the reef! We then offered to take them back to the shore in the dinghy for which they were very grateful. They were desperate to get photos and when we dropped them off they had to get some more. All their friends were on the beach waiting for them.

Buccoo Town

Buccos is a lovely little town. The main feature is a goat racing stadium !! They have the main event once a year and a lot of money has been spent on the facilities. We remain uncertain of the political influence of the goat racing fraternity that managed to build a stadium that may only be used once a year.

The favourite activity on a Sunday is Sunday School. This is not your typical “Sunday School”. This is a big party every Sunday with food stalls and music all through the town, Dancing and partying. People come from all over Tobago to party on Sundays here and it goes until 2am or 3am in the morning.

The rest of the town is about fishing boats and a lovely beach.

That night we ate in the local Italian restaurant La Tartaruga and it was superb. The best food we had had for some time. It had an amazing wine list (well beyond our pocket) and the owners were lovely and explained every dish. Interestingly they were selling a book about a female airline pilot. She is a resident and eats there often. https://latartarugatobago.com/

The next morning the wind had risen and the sea was forecast to increase by another meter so we moved on. Staying any longer with a narrow shallow channel to exit seemed a little risky.

Plymouth

We left Buccoo Bay early when the wind was low and wandered out of the channel through the reef and along the coast to another town called Plymouth. We anchored there close to the wharf and behind the headland and island which all seemed to be sheltered. The surf breaking on the beach meant we wouldn’t be going ashore.

We were amazed at the number of birds in the small bay. A couple of swallows came and kept us company through most of the morning. There was also a lovely beach and some fortifications to explore but with the surf, it was too hard to get onto the shore.

Unfortunately, as the tide went out and the wind got up so too did the swell. By lunchtime, we decided it was time to move on and find a more sheltered spot. Usually, all these places on the west coast are OK as the prevailing wind is an easterly. However, the swell was well to the north because of a storm that had come down from USA to the northern Caribbean and made all the more shallow bays untenable.

We checked out several other bays on the way north but in the end, decided that it was going to be straight to Charlotteville which hopefully would offer some shelter although we were not sure.

Charlotteville

We arrived late in the day to discover a large deep sheltered harbour with mooring buoys and 10 or so other yachts. Anchoring in 20 metres of water just in front of the town the swell passed gently underneath us to break on the shore and across the road nearly into some of the houses. Going ashore was not an option but we swam and relaxed in a very pleasant bay.

First thing in the morning Customs sent a boat out to us asking why we had not checked in – so off I went with the documents. It was too rough to tie the dingy to the dock so Hew delivered me to the dock. It was just as well because it took about two hours. The customs lady was waiting on the wharf and berated me for not checking in but after finally accepting we had come from Tobago (the same island) she became Natasha, my best friend.

An hour later we finally made her office after stopping for a Double ( a local delicacy) then she also needed a pie to go with it. A friend then arrived looking for some watermelon, but there was none in the shop, so we walked to her house where she had some for him, and then finally on to her office via someone else from the Tourism office to do the paperwork. Then there were forms to fill in (more carbon paper) while my new friend rang various people around the department complaining that we were misinformed about visiting Customs in Scarborough.

From there it was off down the hall to Immigration (for those who have seen the movie Local Hero) to find the same guy we saw in Scarborough working in a different department this week. A relatively straightforward process as I handed over the forms he had given me the previous week in Scarborough which seemed to be in order given he had signed them!

Two days later I had a leisurely walk around town with Hew looking at the local buildings which are tidy and well looked after. Those that were abandoned were quickly claimed by the rainforest.,

Anchored next to us was a nice young English couple who had just arrived across the Atlantic in an old traditional boat. After cups of tea and a chat we filled their water containers from our watermaker as getting water locally was a little fraught with the swell still running.

Inland Tour of Tobago

Due to the large swell we had missed cruising many of the bays on the way north so in discussions with my best friend Natasha, I had asked about an island tour and she had suggested the watermelon man (Keywell) could organise a tour guide. This young local guy assured me it was no problem and he would collect us off the wharf at 8.30 am tomorrow for a full day out for T$700.

The young English couple dropped us on the dock as it was still too rough to leave a dinghy while the waves were breaking over the dingy dock. We were good to go. Our tour guide, Keywell, in his usual pink shorts, was having his morning swim but when he saw us he sprinted off up the road to return a while later with a car and a driver (Anne Marie) with him more formally attired.

We had an entertaining day being driven around the island by these two young people, Keywell had no idea about anything and Anne-Marie turned out to be a student nurse and Keywell’s mother was her Godmother. She had been recruited at the last minute as Keywell had no car and needed help! Proper local enterprise.

Luckily we had done some research and had a list of places we wanted to visit and we rather made things up in between. We visited the Atlantic coast at Speyside and then roamed down the island via the Argyll waterfall, it had 14 levels and we managed to climb up about 6 of them, a garden full of hummingbirds which would land on your hand, lunch in a local restaurant, a visit to Fort King George in Scarborough and finally to Flagstaff Hill lookout above Chartlotteville for the sunset where we found Natasha, my new best friend, and her future husband.

Interestingly both Keywell and Anne Marie had never been to most of these places so when needed we paid their entry fees.

Speyside

Betsey’s Hope

Argyle Waterfall

Tobago Hummingbirds

We have the name of a place that had the hummingbirds but as we passed the park at the top of the hill, Keywell asked a ranger where it was and instead, he directed us to his house – for a fee of course – which he had set up for visitors. Then he had to go back and leave us to do his real job at the Park. The hummingbirds eat out of the feeders and the little pots if you put them on your hand – they wouldn’t go near Hew but then we found that his pot had no sugar water in it! The birds are cleverer than you think. they can see in the UV spectrum and apparently, the sugar water/nectar has a specific colour.

Parlatuvier Beach

We considered Parlatuvier Beach on the way up the coast. We could see there was space on the northern edge but we thought there would not be enough swing room for us and it was odd that all the fishing boats were on the south side even though the swell was from the north. Of course, there is always a reason. When we looked down on this beautiful beach from above the way it was formed caused all the swell to run down the northern side and not the southern side!! Also, the area free near the beach on the south side would have been too shallow. We were glad we had given it a miss.

Fort King George, Scarborough

Fort Cranby and Grounded Ships

While we were on the island there were 2 shipwrecks, one of which made international news. An unidentified ship/barge had washed up off Scarborough and was spilling oil everywhere. No one seemed to know where it had come from, what is was carrying, who owned it as it spilled oil from split tanks all over the coastline including a marine reserve. We were unable to get anywhere near it but there was a huge clean up going on as well as an investigation as who it belonged to..

Meanwhile just up the coast this barge had escaped its tow and ended up on the beach luckily it only seemed to be full of sand. It appeared they had a plan to unload it and float it off but it was a public holiday when we saw it so nothing was happening. Obviously not a great emergency as the tug was merely keeping the bowline tight.

Along the way we discovered that a newly qualified nurse could earn $TT 10,000 pa (NZD 2,500) but a job at the end of your training was not guaranteed. Keywell didn’t really have a job but was fixing up his boat because he could then get some casual work with ERIC, a local environmental organization. Anne-Marie was concerned that Keywell had passed himself as a professional guide, which he wasn’t but we already knew that. Keywell didn’t want a proper job as he could earn enough daily from tourists to only need to work one or two days a fortnight. Shall we say his aspirations were not high?

If your household income is below $TT 10,000 then education is free (this is about the average). The government employs about 45% of the population and unemployment runs about 20% so government jobs are well sought after. Many choose to work like Keywell and enterprise, which we found everywhere in Grenada, is largely missing as central government funds pretty much everything off the back of oil revenues.

Flagstaff Hill

Our final stop on the tour was Flagstaff Hill for a view of the sunset high above Charlotteville. While admiring the view we came across Barb’s new best friend the Customs lady and as we were informed, her future husband. Its a very small island.

Checkout

The following day, after another 2-hour endeavour with carbon paper and 6 sets of forms with largely the same information on each, we were good to go. I was glad to escape the bureaucracy and only to have to deal with the simple French system in Martinique 200 miles away.

Next blog: Relaxing in Martinique